Chernobyl Update

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A study published in 1998 revealed that men who eat candy in moderation live linger that those who don't. Researchers define candy as sugar confections or chocolate. Subjects of the study were 7841 men who entered Harvard University between 1961 and 1950 and who responded to a health survey in 1988. Those who are candy differed in several respects from those who didn't. Those who didn't eat candy were older, leaner, and more likely to smoke tobacco compares to those who did. Those who didn't eat candy ate more red meat, ate fewer vegetables or green salad, and were more likely to take vitamin or mineral supplements, compares to those who ate candy. After adjusting for age and cigarette smoking, those who ate candy lived an average of nearly a year (0.92 years) longer than those who didn't. However, those who ate candy in moderation lived even longer that those who are a lot of it. ("A lot" was defined as "three or more times each week.") Authors of the study speculated that chocolate may be the ingredient providing life-prolonging benefits to candy eaters. Previous studies have shown that chocolate reduces the danger of heart attack. They conpared chocolate to red wine, which is also believed to reduce heart disease, when used in moderation. Chocolate is also known to act as an antioxidant (tying up "free radical" oxygen molecules). Antioxidant are believed to reduce the dangers of both heart disease and cancer.

SOURCE: Rachel's Environment & Health Weekly #634, January 21, 1999

Oksana, with her mother on the left and Roma Hawryliuk WIT's Regional Director, was born after Chernobyl without arms and one leg. She is being refitted for limbs by a fund from WIT to assist her in school where she is a top student.

SOURCE: WIT Regional Office, Lviv, Ukraine

In a recent article on the work of Dr. Cham Dallas, an environmental toxicologist from the University of Georgia, he states that after investigating the genetic effects of very high levels of exposure to environmental radioactivity for the past 10 years, he finds no genetic damage in the Chernobyl animal population. He further states that he finds this very disconcerting and fears long-term genetic changes in the form of a mutation time bomb.

Notwithstanding the recent questions as to the degree of potential health damage from Chernobyl's legacy, WIT'S discussions with the Children of Chernobyl Relief Fund (Ukrainian spelling) indicate that the impact on children's health has been severe. In some areas, thyroid cancer increases 80-fold, birth defects have doubled and many children have been stricken with immune deficiencies known as "nuclear AIDS". The two nations most effected by Chernobyl, Belarus and Ukraine, report tens of thousands of premature deaths and a significant decline in the population growth.

The current speculations regarding the lack of genetic defects or deformities in the local human and animal populations bring into focus the need for further study of this phenomenon. Following the Chernobyl explosion, the greater contamination covered several regions of Ukraine and Belarus where the population received many times the recommended lifetime dose of radiation. Everyone who lived 160 km south and downwind of the explosion received 7 rems of exposure in the first three days, whereas 5 rems per year is allowed by US nuclear power workers. The findings that the most radioactively contaminated living organisms are thriving - catfish, carp, and other fish species examined near Chernobyl show levels of radioactive contamination three to five times higher, and rodents show levels that are 10 times higher than in the US. - indicate the importance of further extensive research for the benefit of humanity. SOURCE: Science Spectra. "In Hot Pursuit", Issue 15, 1999